Charlie Rose has been on the air since 1991, and in that time, Rose has had some wonderful guests from the world of writing. For your Friday viewing, here are 5 of our favorites. Click the name to watch the entire interview.

5. Siddhartha Mukherjee (11/24/10)

Mukherjee, author of 2010′s Pulitzer Prize winner The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, tells you everything you’d want to know about cancer, including the etymology of the word (the Greeks said a tumor resembled a crab and the blood vessels around the tumor were the crab’s legs), the origins of chemotherapy, the wonder of gleevec, and tobacco’s association with the disease.

4. Steven Pinker (3/13/08)

Pinker, a Harvard professor, talks about language in topics ranging from the semantics of the 9/11 discussion, how minor grammatical differences reflect our interpretation of the world and how innuendo and roundabout speech dictates our desires.

3. Stephen King (8/10/99)

King talks about the connection between writer’s block and sex as well as the relative importance of a writer’s literary reputation, but really the interview is a great window into the writing process from one of the world’s most famous writers.

2. Margaret Atwood (1/29/07)

Rose gets Atwood, known for being a difficult interview, engaged and relaxed in this discussion about the short story, how guilt jump-started her career, and how the Booker Prize changed her career.

1. David Foster Wallace (3/27/97)

Absolutely one of the best clips of Wallace you can find. On display is his nervousness and his vulnerability, but those are dwarfed by his heart and his lightning-quick wit. Rose and Wallace go back-and-forth, pushing each other. Worth a watch for any Wallace fan.